Platina and Mercury upon each other. 1 29 
either my own observations, or those of others have given me 
cause to alter my opinion. I will add that I have as yet seen 
no arguments of sufficient weight to convince me, in opposition 
to experiment, that palladium is a simple substance. Repeated 
failure in the attempt to form it I am too well accustomed to, 
not to believe that it may happen in well conducted operations ; 
but four successful trials, which were not performed in secret, 
are in my mind a sufficient answer to that objection. By deter- 
mining the present question we may overcome the prepos« 
session conceived by many against the possibility of rendering 
mercury as fixed, at an elevated temperature, as other metals : 
we may be led to see no greater miracle in this compound 
than in a metallic oxide, or in water, and be compelled to 
take a middle path between the visions of alchemy on the one 
hand, and the equally unphilosophical prejudices on the other, 
which they are likely to create. In the course of experiments 
just now related, I have seen nothing but what tends to con- 
firm my former results, yet the only means which I can, after 
all, prescribe for succeeding, is perseverance. 
To ascertain whether the opinion of Mess. Fourcroy and 
Vauquelin, that the new metal was the principal ingredient 
in palladium had any just foundation, I observed the methods 
they have recommended for obtaining pure platina ; but I did 
not perceive any difference in the facility with which either 
kind of platina combined with mercury. 
I might have added some more experiments to corroborate 
the evidence I have adduced to prove my assertion of the 
fixation of mercury by platina; but Mess. Vauquelin and 
Fourcroy have promised the Institute of France a continuation 
of their researches, and M. Richter concludes his paper with 
MDCCCV. £ 
